“The musicians work best in a tight group context. Still, at the same time, their personal improvisational digressions are dazzling, creating an accumulated effect of well-planned narrative and definite solidarity of sound. ….this kind of conviction and openness to the possibilities of collective and open improvisation is astounding…” – Eyal Hareuveni (allaboutjazz.com)
“This pianist makes you believe there’s still hope for the future…nay for the present of improvisation while half of the jazz world survives with one foot in the grave.” – Andrea Ferraris (chindlk.com)
“…it is Hannaford who’s at the centre, throwing with loose notes, breaking harmonies apart into thousands of atoms, holding very still and then again exploding into a firework of dissonance.”, “In its impulsive and infectious nature, ‘The Garden of Forking Paths’ is also an irresistible invitation to make good on that first request: Once you’ve come to enjoy it, you’ll want find out how it fits into the picture of the Australian improvisational scene.” – Tobias Fischer (tokafi.com)
“Hannaford's playing style is as bold as his compositional concept.” - textura.org
‘….impressed with his beautiful time feel and melodic invention’,
‘…..a highlight of the festival’ – John Clare (sima.org.au)
“…a formidable two-handed pianist, making treble dissonances ping over huge bottom chords, thundering and crashing in bursts like a freeze-frame avalanche and suddenly retreating to some fernery of rarefied calm.”, “deeply satisfying music” - (Sydney Morning Herald)
‘…one of the best jazz pianists in the country’ – Eric Dunan (Head of Jazz-Wollongong Conservatorium)
‘…complex, simple, aggressive, delicate, triumphal, dazzling, acerbic and engaging.” – Roger Mitchell (Herald Sun)
Marc Hannaford began performing professionally on the piano in 2001 has amassed an impressive list of performance, composition and education credentials. At just 24 years old Marc was awarded 2nd Prize in the 2006 National Jazz Awards, which is open to any improvising pianist in Australia under the age of 35. 2007 saw him included as one of the four national finalists in the Music Council of Australia’s prestigious Freedman Fellowship (held at the Sydney Opera House) as well as one of three nominees for the Australian Jazz ‘Bell’ Awards Young Jazz Musician of the Year. He was one of four jazz composers to be nominated for the 2006 Melbourne Jazz Fringe Festival’s annual commission, and in 2004 was commissioned by the Half Bent Winter Music Festival to present a suite of new music for septet. Marc’s composition ‘Out and Out’ was nominated as a semi-finalist in the jazz category of the 2006 International Song Contest. He has presented music as part of Australia’s vibrant improvised music, multimedia and jazz scene under the banner of organizations such as The Wangaratta Festival of Jazz, The Stonnington Jazz Festival, The Melbourne Jazz Fringe Festival, The Melbourne Jazz Co-operative, The Make-It-Up Club, The Sydney Improvised music Association and many others. In 2006 he received a ‘Skills Arts and Development’ Grant from the Australia Council of the Arts to travel to Brisbane for intensive study with violinist John Rodgers, drummer Ken Edie and saxophonist Elliot Dalgleish. This period of tutelage significantly altered his outlook on improvisation, and has led to an intense period of private study on traditional counterpoint, serialism and post-serialism, polyrhythm and jazz interpretation. Marc released his debut album: “The Garden of Forking Paths” on Extreme (www.xtr.com) in 2007. It has been lauded by Lawrence Donahue-Greene (chief editor allaboutjazz.com), Paul Grabowsky (Australian jazz pianist/composer) and John Rodgers (leading contemporary composer/ violinist) as some of the most original and exciting improvised music in recent times. He has given workshops and masterclasses at many of Australia’s leading creative institutions including the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and The Australian National University in Canberra. In May/June of 2008 Marc traveled to Banff, Canada to take part in the International Workshop for Jazz and creative music. Here he learned intensely from world-reknowned musicians Dave Douglas, Thomas Morgan, Ethan Iversson and Wayne Krantz. He then traveled to New York to receive lessons from pre-eminent contemporary classical pianist Marilyn Nonken. In 2005 Marc was awarded an Australia Council of the Arts bUZZ grant for a recording of original music with his septet. The resulting record, ‘Parallels, Layers’ has been received with much acclaim from within the jazz community. Marc completed his Bachelor of Music (Jazz) and his Graduate Diploma in Performance (Jazz) at the Australian National University in 2004 with the assistance of the Michael Foster Scholarship. During this time Marc’s teachers included Sydney pianists renowned Paul McNamara and Matt McMahon, Canberra pianists John Luxton and Colin Forbes, Melbourne pianist/composer Andrea Keller. He has also received lessons from New York pianists Jason Moran and Andy Milne and New York saxophonist Greg Osby. Marc has performed both as a sideman with such well-known international musicians such as Wycliffe Gordon (trombonist with the Lincoln Centre Jazz Orchestra, USA) and Rex Richardson (USA) as well as saxophonists Dale Barlow, Jamie Oehlers and Julien Wilson, trumpeters Miroslav Bukovsky, Scott Tinkler and Eugene Ball, violinist and composer John Rodgers and drummers Ken Edie, Ronny Ferella and Allan Browne. He has also appeared in such ensembles as the Scott Tinkler Quartet, the Bennett’s Lane Big Band, Jamie Oehlers/Marc Hannaford Monk Project, Eugene Ball’s Messiaen Ensemble, The David Rex Quartet and the multi-media ensemble The Maximalists. Marc is currently working on projects in a variety of formats. He has resided in Melbourne, Australia for the past 4 years.